A quick trip to Florida
We left RDU the day of the gravity waves announcement. The universe is no longer silent. It ripples like the Gulf water that I watched as we landed in St. Petersburg: a steady background hum of waves, white noise, with smooth streaks cut throughout, remnants of the wake from speed boats. We cut our own wake through space-time, heading south over the Tampa Bay causeway and Sky Bridge, lit up with yellows and greens, and on to Bradenton, where we stopped on the outskirts for some food and local culture at a dock side bar and grill (Woody's River Roo). Outside grow old live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. The night air was chilly but we sat outside anyways next to the dock. Life sized (but cartoon) kangaroo cut outs watched us as we ate. Later that night (9 or 10 pm) we pulled into a ranch house in Sebring, where we stayed for two nights, visiting Rob, Jill, and their daughter, Wren. The next morning, when everyone had gone (Jill to work, Wren to preschool, and Rob and Susan to